Frontal airbag systems are known in the industry and are standard on all new motor vehicles. These frontal airbag systems may be drivers' airbags or passenger airbags (which are usually positioned in the dashboard of the vehicle).
It is known that the frontal airbag system includes an airbag that is held within a housing. A retainer ring is also added to the system. Specifically, the airbag is generally clamped between the retainer ring and the housing to secure the airbag in position and to anchor it during deployment. Once positioned, fasteners are added to permanently affix the airbag. Obviously, it is important that the retainer ring and housing adequately retain and hold the airbag in position, even during the deployment. Deployment of an airbag often places large loads on the fasteners and the retainer ring. Accordingly, care must be taken to ensure that the fasteners/retainer ring can withstand this load over the lifespan of the airbag system.
Over the lifespan of the airbag system, the fasteners joints can have a tendency to relax and loosen. Similarly, there has been a recent trend in the airbag industry to use plastic materials in constructing the airbag housing. These changes create the possibility that the fasteners will loosen over time and will not be sufficiently tight to withstand the large loads created during deployment. Accordingly, in order to combat the possibility that the fasteners will loosen over time, the torque applied to the fasteners during assembly is often quite high.
Of course, applying extra torque to the fasteners makes the airbag assembly process more complex and more expensive. Similarly, the quality control inspections for these airbag units become more costly and difficult as inspectors must take sufficient steps to ensure that the fasteners have received the proper amount of torque. Accordingly, the costs of producing and installing airbag systems have been significantly increased.
Similarly, there is also a trend in the airbag industry to make airbag systems smaller and more compact. In order to make the airbag systems smaller, the size of the airbag housing must similarly be reduced. Likewise, the size of the inflator that is used with these smaller airbag systems is also decreased. The fasteners that secure the airbag pass through holes that are located on the airbag. However, as the size of the airbag decreases (to fit into the smaller housing), the fastener holes for the airbag assembly are now positioned nearer to the edge of the fabric. If the fastener holes are too close to the edge of the fabric, there is a possibility that the fasteners will undesirably pull or rip through the fabric during deployment.
Accordingly, there is a need in the industry for a new type of airbag attachment and retaining ring that addresses one or more of the above-recited problems. Such a device is disclosed herein.